Friends, mutineers, countrymen, lend me your ears. There is something that has been bothering all of us here at our North Dakota headquarters for quite some time now. We talk about it often in hushed tones. It is the extreme dearth of fresh new desi bloggers out there. We are ever vigilant and constantly searching for freakishly interesting and smart bloggers to be pulled into the Mutiny and to blog tirelessly for you. We can’t keep doing this forever on our own, especially since many of us are going through transitions in our busy lives. To be perfectly honest, I think that when the time comes we will suddenly and viciously pull the plug on SM. It will be just after the moment we feel that we’ve got no blog left to give and nobody else is capable of picking up the keyboard to mutiny forward. If you like spending time on this website then don’t say we didn’t warn you. I sometimes wonder, if we never existed would more of you be blogging now? Must we burn Rome to save Rome?
So what am I asking? Some of you need to start blogging and do so with a purpose. Almost all of the guests we’ve had were bloggers even before SM was created. Where’s the new blood? We aren’t looking for suggestions like, “Hey what about so-and-so? Why don’t you ask them to guest.” Please don’t use the comments following this post for that. We wouldn’t be worth the ink on our blog unless we were also good scouts. We scout bloggers, sometimes for months, before inviting them to guest for you. Most often we find them by the content of their blogs, especially if they consistently leave interesting comments on SM or expounding on something they read here first. We are scouting several of you right now as a matter of fact.
As you may have noticed SM is very secretive (as all good mutinies must be to survive infancy), but for the first time ever I am revealing the basic requirements we look for in new bloggers (besides being desi). No surprise here:
1) Must be North American or have lived in North America for a significant amount of time.
2) Has a fabulous voice (voice = great writing + interesting perspective) and can cover a wide variety of topics (not just a small range of topics that they know really well). With a little research and a little snark they should be at ease writing about the policies of the International Monetary Fund or Diwali Barbie in under 90 minutes.
3) Have experience with blogging or internet publishing. We are too busy to teach people how to publish something on the web and how to use basic html tags. If you’ve run your own blog for a while then all this should be easy. Thus, if you aren’t already a blogger then you probably won’t be a good fit until you become one, even if you just won the Booker (just kidding Kiran…call me).
4) Be a fearless and passionate writer, not someone who worries how they “sound.”
Now maybe you are thinking to yourself, “Hey! I’m a blogger and I meet all those criteria, why haven’t they approached me?” Please don’t take it personally. You might be a great blogger/writer but we also look at other things like how much time we think you have, how well your tone complements ours, and several other intangibles. We love to see diversity in our guest bloggers but we’ll never invite someone just for the sake of being diverse.
Just today I got this email:
Hi!
I’m a South Asian American born and raised in the U.S. (my parents are from Pakistan), and right now I’m a senior in high school. I was wondering if I could write for this blog. I’ve been following it for a year and half now, and I am absolutely enamored by it! I’ve noticed though that there aren’t any Pakistani voices, so I thought I could contribute to that. K, hope to hear from you guys soon! Thanks!
You know, we’d love to have a Pakistani American and especially a young one write in this space. I’d personally (not speaking for my co-bloggers) like to invite guests that are 18-30. Perhaps some of them are hating grad school as much as I was when I started blogging. If you think you got something to say then start saying it and we’ll find you. We’re always watching.
Don’t make us burn this blog down to save the spirit of the Mutiny.
Speaking as a yuppie lawyer/scientist who is a wanna be jazz drummer, I have no problem with anyone treating any of those professions with derision. If you can’t make fun of yourself, and you can’t take criticism of your chosen lifestyle, then perhaps this isn’t the right blog for you. I can’t think of a single thing/person/profession that shouldn’t be criticized from time to time, so long as the criticism is fair, honest, and constructive. The people who write and comment on this site, including yourself, do so because they aren’t afraid to voice their opinions, unpopular they may be. I believe only good comes out of such discussion.
Y’know, I’ve been wondering the same thing for awhile now. Might it possibly be time to “flush” a certain commenter?
Jilted_Manhood,
I was not affronted (or insulted, offended even), although seeing the old term “Britisher” did make me consider bringing Colonial Jai out of retirement for one last mission on SM. Presumably he would have a few things to say in his usual Cary Grant-with-a-pinch-of-Errol Flynn-way, albeit nicely lubricated with a glass or five of brandy.
On this site, those careers (doctors, lawyers, engineers or bankers) are often treated with derision, and the yuppie lifestyle they take on is treated similarly.
I’m with Bidismoker on that one. Which takes our count to a staggering TWO. I still heart the mutineers though.
drops jaw
Dude. Dig up… fast.
Has BidiSmoker’s example on this very thread taught you nothing about what happens when you make idiotic comments?
i think, psychologically speaking, Jai hit the nail on the head. To understand is to forgive.
Awww, I didn’t think he meant it– I thought he was just being funny. 🙂 I’m sure we’ll receive clarification, shortly. 😉
hey shruti .. i think he was being sarcastic.
Dude. Dig up… fast.
Not so fast girl. Appreciate the humor!
Aye, yes, it could have been an attempt at sarcasm 🙂 (Although, HMF doesn’t have the best record when it comes to commenting on issues of femme sexuality).
whew! that really cleared the air around here. so what’s hanging my pustulent pangeacs.. ? ready for the veekend yet?
I never joke. Never.
taz (#183):
Oh, snap!
MJ (#213):
I’m all for discussing patterns and trends in comments, but please, at least provide solid stuff if you want to make allegations.
Well don’t I feel fucking special? What the fuck am I exactly pointificating to? You being rude? Dude half this thread is pointing out the same thing. And please do tell me why I should care if a punk 23 year old who thinks a bit too highly of himself finds no value in what I have to say.
Perhaps I should hand you a vat of Vaseline to make the slide down the shitter a bit easier? You know me manufacturing cosmetics and shit gets me a freebee here and there! Stop with the fuckin stupidity already.
Beat yourself up if you happen to be the underachiever you are but please spare the rest of the folks here especially the bloggers you so freely insult and who are continuing to put up with it; from your ire.
I know I’M really looking forward to marrying my grandmother… 😉
first there’s no e. hey bidismoker’s entitled to his opinion, i’m not going to argue with that. i may disagree with what he has to say (in fact i do disagree with a lot, but not everything) anyway, what you wrote is just cold ennis. the connotations of your comment are pretty insulting for a variety of reasons. just because i pointed out something that stuck out to me that you may not like, it’s no reason to come after me and lump me with someone who has expressed himself in a manner very different from myself. i’ve never cut down the SM staff, nor have i come across with elitist speak about anything related to this blog (outside of the cal-stanford bantering with manish).
you need to consider that not everyone reads every single post made and that, in fact, people will read in depth the posts that interest them. it’s possible that the impression they have of the blog is not one you share but is still relevant in the discussion of the blog. to argue that, on average, people in their 30’s have similar interests and concerns to people in their 20’s doesn’t make a lot of sense (summarizing the multitude of comments from SM staff and others). i just pointed out that posts reflect the difference in interests (with examples). so don’t come off questioning my ability to comprehend what’s written on this site or understand the intent of what goes on here. with all my constructive criticism i’ve expressed my appreciation of the good as well. if you can’t take the criticism, don’t make it personal. it seems the appropriate thing to do is should express your disagreement and move on.
BS:
, you’re really getting offensive. you’ve posted a lot of pictures of pretty women on your site and they’re all wearing makeup. w/o people like JOAT, you’d have no pictures of pretty women to look at…and thus no sex life at all.
I am confused.
Why is that when someone is slightly or enormously stupid on this blog, many of the mutineers swarm to attack? Surely, we can all be idiots, can we not? And, sometimes, the best of us speak in the moment when perhaps what’s required is to wait until the next one rolls around.
In any community, there will be those who are deeply favored, those who are not so favored and everyone else occupying some sort of space in the continuum, in between. Certainly there exists a favored pantheon here. Whatevs. But do keep in mind that if we must live up to Gods(desses), etc. we must dive down to crap, every now and again.
Finally, can’t one go out on a limb, apologize (perhaps more than once, for reallz this time) and not be threatened with expulsion? And a relentless dressing down? Can we not ease up a little?
Just curious.
Can we not ease up a little?
You got it Pritha. I’m done. And by the way the best “fights” are those where the disagreement split is 50/50. You have half the people fielding one way and the other half fielding the other and a whole lot of dishoom dishoom. These ‘one person said something stupid’ moments are rare. Hell I’ve had a famous one myself and everyone piled on me. I probably deserved it too just as in this instance.
Apologies. I didn’t mean to speak down to you, nor to compare your comments to that of BidiSmoker. I was expressing genuine confusion about how people perceive this blog, that’s all. And yes, to your credit, you did respond to my questions with concrete examples, which I do appreciate.
Honestly, I wasn’t trying to be cold towards either of you. I’m just puzzled. But your comments are very different from his, and I can understand that you would not want to be lumped together.
pritha:
i agree it’s quite a pile-on in here, but BS has given one of those annoying non-apology apaolgies, where he apologizes but then repeats the offense. judge for yourself:
also, i think BS’s comments hit a nerve b/c they made no sense. even if you were to accept his notions of social status, many blogers and commenters here have achieved great status, ie wealth, education, profesionalism, etc.
but i think even more disturbing, as taz point out, is the notion that those who have choosen (or in some cases not chosen) to follow conventional notions of status, are not worthy of being heard. this is made even more psychologically twisted by the fact that, as Jai noted, BS puts himself in this group.
It’s sado-masochism here on SM. He’s begging for it.
Sharbanash, JoAT.
Manju: I hear what you say, most loudly that a sort of apology is sort of nothing at all.
Overacheiver, underacheiver. Oh, for heaven’s sake. I mean, life is (if you’re lucky) a marathon, not a race.
At 17: Indian girly geek with deep resentments of parents and have-to-go-med-school-itis-parents and, and, and everything. Life is hard when you’re different. And, it is 🙁 At 20: I was a ‘loser’ (asked to leave my school by my parents for my solid B- average; made up of D’s and scattered A’ s due to lack of studying, and hanging around playing pool and stuff. Not making that up). At 22: I just barely got into medical school and was told I got lucky. Yup, I sure was lucky. Don’t know how I managed to squeak in: It was a whole lot of luck and state of IA resident status, plus I pulled my head out of my as* and started working harder. At 29: Divorced and in a residency program that was not, uh, at the super top although I loved it, wondering what the heck I was doing with my life. At 32: Multiple sclerosis diagnosis. Mild. Thankyouthankyouthankyou. At 39: Working in a place I thought I never would work, doing things I never thought I would do. And, as far as I am concerned, the race is just getting started. Buck up kiddos, you never know what the future brings……which is both a good and bad thing. Actually, it’s the scariest thing in the world. Personally, I think if you are happy and kind and trying your best to do interesting things, you are successful. So you over and under and in-between acheivers, you dreamers and doers and introverts and extroverts. Are you nice? Are you kind? Are you authentically you or trying your best to be? Well, then, I don’t care about the other stuff. You rock!
See now, MD’s post is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about way back in #49.
Oh, and thanks bidismoker. Seriously. For letting me do what I love to do best: make the thread all about me…… 🙂
Personally, I love it when someone riles up the folks. The comments get funny-insane. Just love it.
MD, You left out the critical age at which you turned all right wing! That sort of info is important for our younger readers to be aware of 🙂
It must’ve been your stellar MCAT scores!
To get us back to the topic, how much time do the mutineers and other bloggers spend on their blogs. I know the mutineers spend a lot. But how much, not counting the 24/7 monitoring of comments. How long does an avg post take to compile. The political posts are quite well researched, quote multiple viewpoints & check all basic facts.
will do. shall we expect you at the next bonspiel.
Hey Bidismoker, I will not be casting a stone. I will be offering you a hand.
Um, voiceinthehead you are not speaking to me directly as I am not a blogger, but please don’t mind that I let you know that today I am spending waaaaaaaaaaay toooooooooooo muchtime on blogs as a respondent because I am too scared to be a corespondent. It’s been a shitty week and I’m taking it to the bloggy place to make myself feel better.
And later, I will be taking it to the drinky place.
It depends, since we have such a variety of posts. Most mutineers write a post (fact-check, edit, scour for images, incorporate inside jokes at the last minute) in about an hour. And btw, EVERY post needs fact-checking, not just the politically-themed ones.
The political posts or really, any post which has a lot of links or several sources obviously take longer. Some of the “musings” essays take a few hours. A recent guest took up to five hours to write a post and edit it. YMMV.
My point is, once someone is a mutineer, they spend a non-trivial amount of time being devoted to this blog. It’s not as simple as “3 posts/week…one hour/post..3 hours/week!!” Bloggers spend anywhere from 3-6 hours a DAY monitoring comment threads (especially if it’s one of their own). One nearly constant bit of feedback that we get in the “farewell” Thank You notes we receive at the bunker is something to the effect of, “Wow, I had NO idea it was so much work.”
MD, that was deep. A beautiful thing.
Ennis wrote:
accepted.
30 minutes to 4 hours is what it takes me, banging on 4 typewriters simultaneously. Although, if the intern could peel bananas faster, I might be able to speed things up. 1-2 hours is average, but each post displaces a lot more time than that in our schedule unless we’re able to somehow post and walk away, having somebody else monitor it.
md, that sort of honest humanity is why i can proudly say i am a sepia mutiny addict.
And MD this is why you are successful and I absolutely adore you. That and you and I have the same list of “to do’s” 🙂
re #234, that’s a wonderful attitude 🙂
Thank you :).
MD, nice words, even from an unintentional representative of the man.
And yes, I don’t consider manufacturing make up to be of much value (or selling checking accounts, which is what I do.) Sue me
This reminds me of an interview I was reading with director Kevin Smith. He says, ‘somebody’s got to sell me the milk. Somebody’s got to flip the burgers. Everyone doesn’t have to aspire to be a …(insert millionaire ‘success story’ here)
He went on to talk about his father’s 20 years working for the Post Office and how there was nothing wrong with that, which there isn’t. Smith made the case that there are a lot of people who have a certain approach to life and want certain things out of it. Those people make our lives more comfortable/convenient or in the case of JOAT, more glamourous.
JOAT, BTW sweetie, I don’t equate your job or aspirations with flipping burgers. I was just thinking about the elitism really prevalent in American culture today. I’s just saying, I see the value in what you do. I see the value in you, though we’ve never met. G’wan girl, as they say here in the dirty south. Your mascara rocks.
goddammit. this thread went from a total hatefest to an absolute lovefest. Yuk
Somebody’s gotta make it a lovefest…
Just how are you watching us?
I’m not piling on, as I think this comment is probably indicative of more than one person. But, if the desi community or any community in our society actually believed this was true, that would be news. In reality-land, the gap between the rich and poor is growing and it causes a lot of bad results. There is no comparision between not having money and being teased for having an SUV. The change of focus from the richest to the brokest is still sorely needed.
peace one love, power to the people and whirled peas
And if you do end up with a relatively nondescript social status and lifestyle in America, tell everyone that you’re a Brahmin. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not or if you’ve miscegenated. Place the information prominently in the [insert region/language of India] Association cultural publication under your child’s name starting off with, “Many of my friends ask me what a Brahmin is…” (ha, NO ONE ever asks!)
Oh, just reminiscing about the good ol’ days of those cultural publications…
Also can we get some love for actual fuck-ups? If people only cared as much about actual ass-holery as they do for simulated internet assholery, maybe more shit would get done re: all the people who actually are hurting because of having no money or because they are harrassed by the powers that be.
I know this is some self-righteous bullshit but still, it adds some (more) unintentional parody to a thread
No, not self-righteous bullshit. A good point. Sending the love right now. But maybe money would be better.
I know I am late for the hatefest and early for the lovefest but I think there necessarily needn’t be a dichotomy in being creative (as monkey horde in the SM bunker is) and being sucessful, in a monetary sense, in life – I say this since this is the impression I get from some of the talk here. I for one would love to read someone here at SM who might be a would-be Shashi Tharoor – thinkful while rockin in the Man’s world.